You never get tired of watching someone catch his or her first salmon.

Or any fish for that matter.

"OH MY GOD!" exclaimed Jolene Coats of Lake Oswego Thursday morning as her first-ever salmon tore off across the Willamette River's surface then erupted in an explosion of water.

Coats, 37, has published the local boating newspaper, Freshwater News, for 11 years but had never been salmon fishing until this year.

Thursday, on just her second time out, an 18-pound bright hatchery salmon tugged back on her cutplug herring in a boat run by Mike Wellock, harbormaster at Waverly Marina.

Before departing, fresh dinner in hand, Coats already planned on bigger fish to fry. She's heading to Cabo San Lucas in May and now will "absolutely" charter a shot at tuna, dorado and sailfish.

And, perhaps, sometime this summer: "I told my boys we may get a boat."

WANTED: The even-luckier angler fishing March 8 at Dodge Park on the Sandy River.

Michael Hayworth, a creel-checker for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, recorded a bright 36-inch, 17-pound hatchery steelhead buck, caught by a man who said he just moved here from Arizona, saw all the anglers on the Sandy River and decided to give it a try.

On March 7 at a local sporting goods store he bought a spinning rod and reel and some tackle and picked up a few tips.

The next morning, he tied on a bobber with a white jig and pink worm, made his first cast and thought he was snagged up -- until the snag jerked back. Yes, his first-ever steelhead struck on his first cast.

Hayworth didn't get his name, but "I told him it would only be a thousand more casts until the next one," Hayworth said. "It sure made my day to see that."

The free clinic is open to the public and will be in the Sam Cox building at Glenn Otto Park, 1106 E Historic Columbia River Highway.

An on-stream session will follow on April 6 for those who join the association.

JEERS: Sadly enough to the fish conservation community for its relentless attack on hatcheries, most recently those on the Sandy River.

We all want our rivers to produce viable wild salmon and steelhead, but given the immense pressures they face from humans, there simply is no returning to the pristine conditions of pre-pioneer days.

Closing hatcheries effectively eliminates user groups, which comprise the bulk of the political support necessary to protect and enhance clean-as-possible waters.

It's particularly galling to see this pointless, self-defeating battle unfold on anglers' home waters in the heart of the state's population center.

TIS THE SEASON: The Spring Fishing Classic, scheduled for March 30, is the first of four major fund-raising events tapping the 2013 spring chinook salmon run.

It's also the only one guaranteed to capitalize on upper Columbia River salmon passing through the Portland/ Vancouver area. The river will close to salmon fishing April 5, well before the Willamette Salmon Quest (April 20), Kings For The Kids (April 27) and the Scappoose Boosters Salmon Derby (May 4).